Craziness and Confusion
by Always a Bookworm
Summary: No way," Ryou whispered. Bakura sat next to him, mouth open in a mix of amusement and shock as he gazed at the kissing couple. "I've just got one question," Ryou said. "How the hell are we going to hide from Malik that his sister is dating Seto Kaiba?"


**Hello again, everyone! This is just a short (-ish!) oneshot to see out 2009. It's been a pretty amazing year! (*is still dazed over the fact that she won the YGO contest*) Hope you all have a very Happy New Year, and I wish you all much happiness in 2010!**

**Mainly, however, this is a present for Skyward Shadow. Skyward is so awesome she basically defines the word! She's always reviewed all of my stuff even though YGO isn't her main fandom, and she's an incredible author- go read her stuff, you will be amazed! So thank you, Skyward! *glomps* Here's the trustshipping you wanted-along with plenty of Bakura chaos! XD!**

**Pairings- Trustshipping (Seto x Ishizu) hints of Angst (Ryou x Malik) and Dark (Atemu x Bakura)**

* * *

If you asked anyone afterwards how Bakura ended up in hospital with cracked ribs, they would instantly blame each other and then sheepishly conclude that it started with a game.

(If you asked Bakura, of course, he would blame it on the Pharaoh and his group for introducing them to the game the in first place, but that's by the by.)

A simple game of dare.

Not truth or dare, because Marik and Bakura weren't interested in gossip, and they much preferred inflicting torturous dares on each other, finding some sadistic pleasure in the knowledge that if one of them backed out they would be considered a coward for all eternity.

But they'd probably all say that it started on one Sunday morning, when Malik and Marik had gone to Ryou's house for a late breakfast and when Malik happened to ask, innocently: "Anyone seen Ishizu?"

(And so the whole story began.)

Ryou shook his head, sleepily, as he poured himself some breakfast cereal and Marik shrugged indifferently. "Why?" Bakura asked, leaning across the table, smirking. "Your family finally got tired of you and escaped in the night?"

He ducked as Malik whacked him over the head. "No," Malik scowled. "It's just that she keeps going off somewhere and I don't know where. And whenever I ask her she just mumbles something and changes the subject!" he sighed, and fiddled with his spoon. "It's annoying, that's all."

"But, Malik, this is Ishizu we're talking about. What would she be hiding from you?" Ryou asked, curiously, yawning.

"That's what I want to know," Malik grumbled.

Bakura grinned. "Maybe she's got a secret and doesn't trust you with it."

Malik looked slightly worried. "You think?"

"Yeah, I bet that's it," Marik joined in, clearly enjoying Malik's anxiety. "It must be hard for her to trust you after all the things you did to her and Rishid..." he trailed off, mock-sympathetically.

Malik was looking extremely upset by now. "But... she's forgiven me! She has! She trusts me!"

Ryou leaned over and placed a soothing hand on Malik's arm. "Calm down, Bakura and Marik are just teasing you," he said, gently, as the aforesaid yamis howled with laughter.

"You are just so easy to wind up, Malik," Bakura said, in a satisfied way, until Ryou shot him an angry look. He shut up quickly.

"I'm sure there's a good reason for Ishizu to be hiding something from you," Ryou said, turning back to Malik. "She'll tell you eventually, I guarantee it."

Malik nodded doubtfully. "I wish I could figure it out though," he groaned, leaning his head on his arms.

Bakura smirked again, not being able to resist teasing the other boy. "You're so pathetic, Malik. You can't even figure out what your own sister's up to. If it were me I would have figured it out _ages _ago," he said, self-importantly.

Malik looked up, eyes flashing. "Well why don't you?" he retorted. "I dare you to find out what Ishizu is up to."

Bakura's smile faltered slightly, but he still shrugged arrogantly. "I can do it in a week. Easy."

Malik grinned, wickedly. "You have one day."

"And if I refuse to take the dare?"

"Then everyone will know that you lost. To me. But more importantly, as a forfeit you'll have to go on a date with Atemu," Malik smirked.

Bakura's mouth hung open for a split-second. "There is no way I'm going on a date with the _Pharaoh_!"

Malik smiled and sipped at his coffee. "Then you're a coward that's backing out of a dare?"

Bakura snapped his mouth shut and stalked out of the room, calling back: "Fine, one day it is. Ryou, come with me!"

Ryou rolled his eyes, kissed Malik goodbye, waved to Marik and followed Bakura out of the door.

He met the white-haired yami standing outside on the step.

"Well?" Ryou asked, as he shrugged on his coat. "Any ideas how we're going to do this?"

Bakura started down the steps, smiling in a way that worried Ryou a bit. "Simple, Ryou. You forget that I was once the King of Thieves. Finding out secrets is child's play to me."

"So what are we going to do?" Ryou panted as he hurried to keep up.

"You ever stalked anyone before, Ryou?"

Ryou burst out laughing. "What kind of a question is that? Of course not!"

Bakura's smirk widened. "Then it's about time you learnt."

Ryou groaned under his breath. Quality time with Bakura was always _such_ fun…

* * *

Stalking Ishizu, Ryou very quickly decided, was extremely boring. They had been sitting in a café opposite the Domino Museum where she worked for nearly two hours now, waiting for her to come out, and were starting to receive funny looks from the waiters.

"Bakura, can we please just give up?" Ryou pleaded, as he ordered yet another coffee. "We can try again later."

Bakura continued to stare straight out of the window, eyes gleaming. "No! We've only got one day, and I do not intend to lose to your little boyfriend- especially when the forfeit is a date with the Pharaoh!"

Ryou snorted and muttered under his breath, "You didn't seem so averse to him at Yuugi's birthday party last month."

Bakura shot him a glare before resuming his position at the window. "That never happened, Ryou. I've told you what will happen if you keep on talking about it-"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll cut my stomach open and hang me by own intestines over a tank full of ravenous piranhas that are slowing eating me from the feet up, I _know_," Ryou interrupted, nose crinkling as he was reminded of Bakura's vivid imagination. "Although where you'd get a tank of ravenous piranhas, I haven't a clue."

Bakura was about to reply sarcastically, when suddenly a woman with dark hair in a simple dress came out of a side door in the museum and started walking down the steps.

"There she is," Bakura breathed, eyes glued Ishizu on the other side of the street.

"What's she doing?" Ryou asked, curiously, as she stood on the edge of the road, checking her watch as if she was waiting for something.

"I don't-" the words died in Bakura's mouth, as a limo drew up beside her, and someone got out of the back seat. Someone that promptly pulled Ishizu into kiss, before greeting her with a rare smile. Someone that both Ryou and Bakura knew very well.

"No way," Ryou shook his head. "No. There is no way…"

Bakura didn't reply, mouth hanging open in a mixture of shock and amusement as he gazed at the kissing couple across the street.

"I've just got one question," Ryou whispered. "How the hell are we going to conceal from Malik that his sister is dating Seto Kaiba?"

Bakura gave a bark of laughter. "Who says we have to conceal it?" he replied, mischievously. "This is going to be brilliant! The look on his face when we tell him that Seto Kaiba is screwing his precious sister…" Bakura grinned wickedly. "I can't wait!"

Ryou leaned over slapped his hand in disapproval. "Pervert. And we can't tell Malik, because if Ishizu hasn't yet then they must be waiting for some reason. We should trust them to do the right thing."

Bakura arranged his face into a mock-innocent expression. "But, Ryou, surely you should consider Malik's feelings more. He deserves to know. Don't you care about him at all?"

This worked perfectly. Ryou hesitated and then looked down at the table, a slight frown creasing his forehead.

"Thought so," Bakura smirked, triumphantly. "Let's go tell him now!" he finished, standing up.

"Um, there may be a slight problem," Ryou replied, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.

Bakura turned to him, impatiently. "What?"

Ryou just pointed out of the window to the pair across the street, who had apparently finished kissing and were staring right at them with rather bemused expressions.

"I think we may have been found out."

* * *

Ishizu and Seto watched as the two boys ducked under the window sill, Ryou looking highly embarrassed, and Bakura looking rather annoyed.

"Do you think they were following us?" Ishizu asked, hesitantly, trying not to laugh.

Seto snorted. "More to the point, do you think they know we can still see them?"

Ishizu sighed, and, seeing that Ryou was peering over the rim of the window sill, waved at him and gestured for them to come over the street. She giggled at Ryou's guilty expression.

"Yes, they were definitely following us."

* * *

"So? Going to explain?" Ryou blurted out, after standing awkwardly, shuffling his feet, in front of them for a few minutes.

Ishizu had the grace to look slightly guilty, whereas Seto looked rather bored by the whole thing.

"Ryou, I don't want you to think that Seto and I are _hiding_ this from Malik-" (here Bakura muttered "Well, you are!" to which Ryou shot him a withering 'you're-not-helping' look) "It's just a very delicate situation right now, and we wanted to wait-"

"Ishizu!" Ryou interrupted, shaking his head, "He's not only my best friend, he's my boyfriend! I'm not going to help you lie to him!"

Ishizu looked at him pleadingly. "Please, Ryou. We didn't want to tell anyone just yet- for a start, the press would go wild when they found out Seto was dating, and you know they'd just love it that I was Malik's sister. Malik _hates_ the press after what happened, you know that."

Ryou shifted uncomfortably. That was true. Last year the local newspaper had gotten wind of the rumor that the hugely popular (not to mention gorgeous) finalist of Battle City, Malik Ishtar, was not only a dangerous schizophrenic, but that he had run the infamous Rare Hunter organization. The bigger newspapers had seized the story, and within two days it was all over Japan. Malik had had to undergo several psychiatric exams to establish that he _wasn't_ a schizophrenic (he didn't really think that people would buy the story about it was really his evil side, that had developed due to a highly traumatic childhood and who was now separated from him and living in his house, that had been the one to go psycho in Battle City) and the police had started an inquiry that went on for weeks about the Rare Hunter's criminal activity. Fortunately, Rishid had destroyed any evidence that would prove that Malik was connected with the group, so the case had been dropped. All the same, Malik had been virtually stalked by journalists for weeks, and he had retained an intense loathing of the press from that experience.

And Ryou had no doubt that it would all start up again if it went public that Ishizu Ishtar and Seto Kaiba were dating.

"Well… You don't have to tell everyone else. Just Malik. He should know!" Ryou insisted, only a hint of hesitancy in his voice.

Ishizu sighed and looked at Seto, who spoke for the first time. "It's not just that. I'm not exactly Malik's favorite person in the world."

Bakura snorted in agreement, and Ryou opened his mouth to protest, but found that he couldn't. Malik didn't like Seto Kaiba. That was just a fact. He didn't exactly _hate_ the CEO, but Ryou knew that he wouldn't be overjoyed to find out about the tryst between his sister and the man.

"And we want to wait. Just a bit longer, so we don't rush into anything. We don't want the pressure that having a public relationship would bring just yet. I really want this to work."

Ryou smiled, softly, as Seto said this in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, and Ishizu turned to him with that look of pure happiness in her eyes to press a kiss to his lips.

Bakura interrupted all of this with a loud gagging noise. "Excuse me while I throw up because of all this romantic rubbish."

Ryou rolled his eyes, as Ishizu and Seto broke apart blushing slightly. Bakura was clearly enjoying their discomfort and his smirk widened.

"And just for the record, there is nothing anyone can say that will stop me telling your brother," he said, addressing Ishizu who's face promptly fell. "I'm really looking forward to seeing the look on his face, thank you very much."

"Look, Bakura," Ishizu said, slipping her hand into Seto's. "Could you at least let me tell him?"

Bakura thought for a second, before grinning and saying, "Nah, I still like the idea of seeing the look on his face when he finds out that his beloved sister has been having an affair behind his back."

Ryou was about to scold his yami, furiously, for being so inconsiderate, when he saw the smug expressions on Ishizu and Seto's faces.

Ishizu's mouth curved into a small smile, much to Bakura's shock. "I thought you might say that," she said. Bakura frowned, slightly worried as she continued. "So I'll make a deal with you."

She leaned forward, conspiratorially. "You wait for _me _to tell Malik about me and Seto, and I won't show everyone _this_."

She waved a photo underneath Bakura's nose, and he saw, horrified, that it was of him and Atemu sitting _very close_ on Yuugi's sofa, kissing each other rather heatedly.

Whilst Ryou started to laugh, Bakura gazed, aghast, at the smirking woman. "Wh-what-how?" he spluttered, ashen-faced.

"I snapped it on my phone when Mokuba dragged me to that party of Yuugi's last month," Seto interjected, gleefully. "I've been waiting for an appropriate time to use it as blackmail."

Bakura's mouth fell open as he gaped at the pair grinning innocently at him.

"If it's any consolation," Ishizu remarked, playfully. "You two make a very cute couple."

Bakura turned a very interesting shade of red, and Ryou howled with laughter.

"That's just- You- How-" Bakura said, stepping backwards onto the road dazedly. "You can't show- you wouldn't-"

Unfortunately for Bakura he was cut short by Ryou's sudden scream of "Watch out!" and the screeching of brakes as a car skidded into him.

His last thought before his mind clouded over with darkness and pain, whilst he felt Ryou hurry to his side and heard Seto calling an ambulance, was: _I am so going to make Malik pay for this._

* * *

"Hey, Bakura."

Bakura heard the voice vaguely as he opened his eyes to see the blurred figure of Ryou leaning over him. He moved his fingers slightly to feel stiff sheets and he could hear the squeak of shoes on polished floors from the corridor.

He winced suddenly as pain shot through body.

"Don't try to move, okay?" Ryou said, gently, as he adjusted Bakura's pillow. "The doctors say you've cracked some of your ribs, but they should only take a couple of months to heal. It's a miracle that the car wasn't going too fast when it hit you, otherwise it could have done some real damage."

Bakura snorted. "And this isn't real damage?" he asked, irritably. "It feels like I've been run over with Kaiba's Blue-Eyes plane."

Ryou smiled slightly, and was about to reply when Malik and Marik pushed open the door to the hospital room.

"Bakura!" Marik grinned, broadly. "Glad to see you back in the land of the living."

Bakura merely growled in response. "I don't suppose your sister told you how this happened?" he grumbled, addressing Malik.

Malik shrugged and frowned slightly. "She just said something about a photo that you didn't want anyone to see… She seemed to think it was pretty funny actually. So did you find out what she was doing?"

Bakura groaned and turned over, images of the imminent date with his worst enemy flitting before his eyes. He had a nasty feeling Atemu would want to do something horribly sentimental and _romantic_. "No, Malik. You win."

* * *

Ishizu laughed as she heard her brother's whoops through the door to Bakura's hospital room, turning to Seto with eyes that twinkled mischievously.

"Don't you think we should put Bakura out of his misery and tell him that we just told Malik about us?"

Seto smirked, and pulled her close to him. "Not a chance. I'll be able to fill an album with the embarrassing photos I can snap when Bakura and Atemu actually go on a date. I'll have blackmail material for life!"

Ishizu leaned in to kiss her boyfriend. "I've been thinking," she whispered, suddenly serious. "I realized that I can't expect you to put up with all of this. You know, my brother and his friends. I love him and all, and all of the people in that room are kind of like my extended family, but how can I expect you to endure all of it? I mean, they're not exactly normal."

Seto smiled at her. "I think I can manage. I don't plan on losing you, Ishizu Ishtar. And if putting up with your brother's crazy dares with his crazy friends (that always seem to end up with someone in hospital) then that's a very small price to pay. And I like to think that I would be considered part of your family, no matter how dysfunctional it might be."

Ishizu felt her heart swell and she gripped Seto's hand tightly. "Yes," she murmured, kissing his cheek. "You're a very important part."

As Malik's wicked yell of 'Take him to Kaibaland- you can go on the Tunnel of Love!' and Bakura's anguished moan drifted out of the hospital room accompanied by the laughter of Ryou and Marik, and as she watched Rishid talk quietly with a nurse, deliberately giving her and Seto some space, she had a feeling that her dysfunctional, 'extended' family was going to be the only thing she would ever need.

* * *

**Well, I hope you all enjoyed it! My first ever trustshipping... I don't really know if I did okay! Anyway, happy new year, and I'll see you in 2010! :D**

**Bookworm**


End file.
